I was going to write an analysis of media construction of the legitimacy of presidential candidates through the projection of objectivity. It's been on my mind lately. But that sounded like a lot of work for something no one would read.
On the other hand, a bunch of you seemed interested in the Officer Larry and Officer Bob saga, and there are some updates on that below the jump.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
The ongoing saga of Larry and Bob
Monday, July 30, 2007
Edward Gorey
Have you guys seen The Gashlycrumb Tinies by Edward Gorey? It's a somewhat unique way to teach children the alphabet.
For example: 
G is for George smothered under a rug.
G es por George asfixiado bajo una alfombra.
Pretty amazing. You should read the whole thing.
Making up words
The Brits do a lot of things better than us - their politicans invent words like "bemerded," we get "nucular." I'm going to try to get my hands on Foyle’s Philavery: A Treasury of Unusual Words (Amazon doesn't seem to have it). Until then, this book review is a fun introduction to some of the awesome words Foyle finds - check it out.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Addendum: Life's more interesting than I give it credit for.
I wrote the last post, then went for a walk through the park and around the block. I passed John McCain, who had his tie loosened and his jacket swung over his shoulder. He smiled at me. I smiled back. We shared a moment.
Fifteen or twenty feet behind him were two thugged out teenage boys. They were holding hands and looked all cuddly. It was awesome.
Sometimes I don't give DC enough credit.
I need to stop working for the government or I will die alone, bitter, and friendless
Warning: this post contains a lot of griping about work. I'm sorry. I never wanted to become the person who blogs about hating their job. Consider it a "how to communicate inside the government" guide.
"hello!"
"how are you?"
"you look tired - everything alright?"
"Don't throw yourself out the window, you won't be here forever."
are meant to build rapport and establish a friendly work place atmosphere. Great. Love it. However, beyond that, all I want is for everyone to either ignore me or push the conversation forward.
Themes of the week are commentary on something or someone in the office. For example, I stumbled into work one Monday, exchanged my morning niceties, poured myself the last dregs of coffee, and forgot to screw the top back onto my travel mug. I went to take my first sip and the entire cup of coffee spilled all over me, creating a design on my pale-pink shirt that rather looked like a Rorschach inkblot. Other than the second-degree burns, it was actually pretty funny. Definitely worth mocking for a day, maybe two. Instead:
Tuesday: "Did you remember a change of clothes today? We were thinking about banning you from coffee for your own safety."
Wednesday: "At least you're wearing brown today - it'll blend right in!"
Thursday: "Wow - two days of not wearing coffee. You turned over a new leaf!"
Friday: "She's wearing white! Better hide the coffee!"
And so on, every morning, I swear to you, for two solid weeks. I have no problem with them making fun of me. I have a problem with the uncreative, mind-numbingly boring monotony, and how convinced everyone seems that conversations like these create tight-knit, long lasting friendships.
In addition to our meta theme of the week, we talk about the weather and the days of the week every single day. When I taught pre-school, we got to sing songs. Here, we just pass the same phrases off as conversation.
Days of the week are my favorite:
Monday: "It's Monday." Tuesday: "Still feels like a Monday." Wednesday: "We made it to hump day!!!" Thursday's special, because we have two options: "[It's almost/Wish it were already] Friday!" Friday: "At least it's Friday."Be warned: you have to have this conversation with 4-5 people over the course of the day. Every day. Or you get kicked out of the government. It's one of their rules.
Here's how we talk about the weather, daily, as an entire office:
It [still hasn't/won't stop/hopefully will/better not] [rain/snow].
It sure is [hot/cold] outside! (even when it's not).
I wish I were [y place], which is [warmer/colder] than here.
And then everyone sighs. At the same time.
The weather conversation inevitably leads to "Wow, Kellie, you sure spend a lot of time outside." Which is true. I am outside, regardless of weather, for absolutely all of the time I'm not stuck at my desk. It's partially because I'm a chain smoker, and partially because I hate it in here. In my work world, they think I'm an avid walker/coffee drinker. We'll go with that.
But now I have a new problem entering and leaving the building. It concerns two very nice police officers who guard my favorite entrance to the building. We'll call them Officer Larry and Officer Bob. To the best of my understanding, Officer Bob and Officer Larry both used to have crushes on me. Bob claimed me. Larry backed off. Larry is cute. Bob is not.
So I made up a boyfriend. They teased me about my Russian boyfriend everyday. Larry would whisper sweet nothings to me in Russian. It was hilarious.
Then, tragedy stuck. Larry got transferred to another guard station, so it was just me and Bob, six times daily, as I was fleeing and re-entering the building. Left without Larry's sense of humor, Bob has reverted to the "we must exchange the same words everyday" game. Every time he sees me, he asks, teasingly, "Where's Larry?" "Where are you hiding Larry?"
He finds this hilarious, but clearly I'm not hiding Larry. Haven't seen him is weeks. And, really, there are only about three ways I can say "I don't know, where is he?" or "Maybe he's hiding from you." Or "Maybe he quit and went to Vegas" and still sound like I'm joking. Honestly, I can no longer take the "Where's Larry? I know you know where he is!" joke thirty times a week. It actually causes me anxiety every time I go outside, simply because I have nothing new to say, and neither does he, and I feel like we're a scratched CD and I can't hit eject.
I hate it here. I hate that I just wrote for 45 minutes straight because I have no work to do. I'm becoming more and more socially inept with each passing day. I need to leave the government before I become a reclusive, mute cat-lady in the woods somewhere.
But, ya know, at least it's Friday.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
24 Years, 24 Relationships, 80 Hours, Obsessive
In a swing at information design, this guy documented every "intimate relationship" he's ever had in chart form. My favorite part? "As a note: I had considered removing the names before posting this, but decided it would not be proper of me to do so." So it's very neat, but also very, very creepy. I kind of want to make one out of magnets so you can put it on your fridge. That way you can rearrange pieces at will or just keep putting them back over and over and over again. Also, everyone that goes to get some ice cream will know how many people you've slept with.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
The Law
Being a lawyer isn't always boring. Here is a tidbit from a case tried in Georgia (of course), sent to me by my friend David.
Southern fried cookin'
Lauren asked me how we cook okra in the south, so I figured I'd post the recipe.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Maybe all of Maryland/CRS doesn't suck....
This is awesome - it's an article from the Washington Post about Takoma Park voting to support impeaching Bush and Cheney. And, even cooler, I work with the woman in the picture.
Ten Random Websites of the Week
I'm trying to make the blog more interactive. I like the Community Bookshelf (recommend more books to post!!!) Mathgimp gave me this idea from his del.icio.us post today on the Periodic Table of the Internet.
I randomly chose 10 sites I'd never heard of before. Here's my impression of each.
Next week, someone else should edit this post with their 10 random new websites.
Amazon Associates book images into a blog post
This may already be on some other blog somewhere, but I couldn't find it, so I figured out how to do it myself.
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142001805?ie=UTF8&tag=stucinmary
-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0142001805">
<img border="0" src="21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg">
lt;/a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=stucinmary-
20&l=as2&o=1&a=0142001805" width="1" height="1"
border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px!important;" />
4. Go to your blog, and create a new post. Paste the html from Amazon onto your screen. Then, click on the upload image icon and select the image you saved in step 2.
5. It'll give you a big, messy set of code that looks like this:
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_DbpWQkSu3Bw/RqUfg5b0UHI/
AAAAAAAAACI/6L6ViJSGHZI/s1600-h/21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg">
<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px;
text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;"
src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_DbpWQkSu3Bw/RqUfg5b0UHI/AAAAAAAAACI/
6L6ViJSGHZI/s320/21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg" border="0"
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5090509603845984370" /></a>6. OK. Now comes the tricky part, so make sure you follow along exactly. Basically, the code above contains two links to the image: one that is the thumbnail image that appears in the post, and one to a larger version of the image, that will open in a new window. You want to substitute the Amazon link for the enlarged image link.
7. You do that by replacing the bolded part of the blogger image link here:
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e)
{}"
href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_DbpWQkSu3Bw/RqUfg5b0UHI/AAAAAAAAACI/
6L6ViJSGHZI/s1600-h/21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg">
<img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px;
text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;"
src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_DbpWQkSu3Bw/RqUfg5b0UHI/AAAAAAAAACI/
6L6ViJSGHZI/s320/21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg" border="0"
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5090509603845984370" /></a>
With the bolded part of the Amazon link here:
<a
href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142001805?ie=
UTF8&tag=stucinmary-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&
creativeASIN=0142001805">
<img border="0" src="21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg"></a><img
src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=stucinmary-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0142001805"
width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px
!important;" />
Important! For a reason I don't understand, it ONLY works with "href" NOT "a href" -- do NOT copy "a href", or it won't work. Just "href," then the url for the Amazon link. Make sense?
8. Now, you have this code:
<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e)
{}"href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142001805?ie=UTF8&tag=stucinmary
-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0142001805">
<img border="0" src="21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg"></a<img
style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer;
cursor:hand;" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_DbpWQkSu3Bw/RqUfg5b0UHI/
AAAAAAAAACI/6L6ViJSGHZI/s320/21KTRVBW5AL._AA_SL160_.jpg" border="0"
alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5090509603845984370" /></a>At the very end of the code, delete the /a> so your code is closed with />
Which gives you this!
I think this works. Let me know if you have problems or find improvements!
Conversation on the Subway
MathGimp, I am the man at Starbucks who asks too much about your dairy habits.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Payin the billz
Mathgimp and I decided it wouldn't besmirch the integrity of the blog too much if we used it to make some money too. It won't be much, but I figure it might support the massive amount of coffee I drink while I'm administring it.
HP, Flight of the Navigator, politics of the ME
Selda requested weekend updates. I, for one, ended up having a fantastic weekend.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Blue Bell Turns 100
And I celebrated the fuck out of it. Blue Bell was born in 1907 when a humble group of farmers started selling their butter. A few years later they started making a gallon or two of ice cream a day to give to their friends. The rest, as they say is history. They're currently celebrating their birthday with a three-day event in Brenham, Texas. Problem is, all there is to do is eat free ice cream. There was a live music stage and some exhibits, but they could only really occupy you for 30 minutes. I was there for more than three hours. I'm going to finish celebrating by remaining horizontal for the next 24 hours.
Do you have a second for (insert cause here)
No, I don't have a second for the enviroment, or the democratic party, or animal rights, or gay rights. Or to see a comedy show for that matter.
Friday, July 20, 2007
Abject Terror
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush will undergo a routine colonoscopy Saturday, his spokesman said, revealing that Bush will hand over presidential powers to Vice President Dick Cheney while he is under under anesthesia.
White House press secretary Tony Snow told reporters that Bush would have the procedure at his Camp David, Md., mountaintop retreat.
Oh, holy God we're FUCKED.
The origins of eating ourselves silly
Update: spell check didn't save last time, so this is edited.
Today's question comes from my old friend Peter: why is there no English equivalent of "bon appetit?" Most sources seem to provide "enjoy your meal," but it is always accompanied by an asterisk and an admonition that it's not a direct translation. We have no idiomatic way to wish people happy eating - what's up with that?
"The Norman conquest of English in 1066 brought many changes in the social and linguistic structure in England. The English language gained many "polite" terms from Norman French that complemented the Anglo-Saxon terms. Many foreign expressions stuck in English, because there was no previous equivalent."
He is, of course, right about the fact that French made English classy and polite. Here's a pretty good summary of how French saved English from itself, but I'll give ya the elevator version. 800 or 900 years ago, the most uptight of British folk only spoke French - it was the language of the court, which made it the language of literature, which made it the language of upper classes. English was considered base and the language of street folk. Eventually, we stole a lot of words from French, our ability to discuss worldly important things improved, and English went on to conquer the free world. Although the language obviously evolved, some expressions just stuck.
I think he's wrong about bon appetit, though. The OED traces the first known occurrence of "bon appetit" in English to 1860, so clearly we were not early adopters of the phrase, and it certainly wasn't introduced wholesale into English in the 9th or 10th century.
I can't find much evidence about when "bon appetit" entered French either, so I came up with a theory of my own. Pretty close to pure conjecture, but I like it: the phrase co-evolved with the advent and evolution of restaurants. Restaurant is, of course, a French word. Here's a brief linguistic explanation ofthe meaning of "restaurant" in French. I prefer, though, the explanation given in the book Prague. My copy's at home, so I'm doing this from memory, but I think this is the jist. During the Renaissance, folks would meet in the parlors of inns to discuss philosophy and plan what ultimately became the French revolution. Eventually, inn keepers started cooking for them, which gave rise to public meeting-and-eating areas. Habermas also talks about the importance role restaurants played in providing folks with the ability to create a political life for the masses in The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere. [Important: Apparently The Invention of the Restaurant: Paris and Modern Gastronomic Culture by Rebecca L. Spang, offers the opposite view of restaurants: they were a spa for spoiled, pampered Parisian elite. I haven't read it, so I'm going to stick with the idea of coffee shop revolutions until I do.]
The story goes, then, that as the French aristocracy began to lose its grip on the masses, and people began to flock to inns to organize rebellion and spread democracy, I'd like to think that the inn keepers showed their solidarity by offering a warm meal, something to drink, and well wishes, expressed through the expression "bon appetit!"
So, how'd we wind up with "bon-appetit" but no red-blooded equivalent? Apparently, the first American "fine-dining" experience was opened in NYC in 1830, and was modelled, of course, on the French way of dining: "a fine-dining establishment with all the sophistication of a meal at the court of Versailles." Seems to make sense to me that, in our hurry to create a more authentically French culinary experience, we would directly borrow French phrases, rather than substitute our own.
So your best bet is probably to tell people to enjoy their meal, or give a shout out to French revolutionaries with a hearty "bon appetit!" Traveling elsewhere, though, this chart might help you out - Bon appetit in about 30 languages. My favorite is Estonian: "may you have plenty of bread."
P.S. I broached the issue with Joey Seiler, authoritative voice on most things and the most accomplished author I know. He denounced the popular translation of "enjoy your meal," and instead offered this explanation: "Subtle translation differences change it to "Go fuck yourself and your Diners' Club Card." They just don't like to tell us. It's all one big joke on America."
I wasn't awake enough for this
So, today I happened to be near a Starbucks when I got coffee. I usually go to the union, where it's cheaper and better, but today I was stuck with Starbucks.
The barista noticed how light my coffee was, and said, "wow, that's a lot of cream." This mundane statement led to a rather odd 30 seconds, after the jump.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Going nuts?
Research question of the day comes from Ms. Medway: why does nuts mean crazy?
People were nuts about nuts. In the late 19th century, the British used "nuts" as slang for something they found enjoyable: Jack Straw would have been far from "nuts" on the idea of bombing Iran. (This usage may have originated in an old cliché—"sweet as a nut.") Being nuts on something meant you really liked it, but so did being "crazy on something." It's possible that "nuts" became a synonym for "crazy" because of this similarity. In any case, Americans were the first to connect the two, in the early 20th century.
Replate your leftovers
Easy to do, neat idea, and I like inventing new words. Check out their website .
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
The new poll - movie night!
Second Update: We have a run off - The clear winner, with 3 votes, is Flight of the Navigator! Now we need two more. Vote for your top two!
If only democracy was this easy
Bikini Masterpiece Theatre
In efforts to keep things light, I'm passing along press releases that never should have made it to me. I get a lot of these, but most of them have to do with virtual worlds or at least something kind of like that. Then I get weird ones, like the guy with MS who is auctioning off the right to taser him to raise money for MSExtreme.org. But then I got this: "Bikini Masterpiece Theater, a new Web channel with no crying, no hugging, no learning -- just fun."
Woman or a doll - you choose!
Here's some zaney, lighthearted fun! Men playing with dolls!
Here's my favorite part:
"Nowadays, women are sometimes more dominant than men in the real world, and they don't always pay attention to men," said Hideo Tsuchiya, the company's president.
"More and more men are finding themselves miserable so we're making these dolls partly in support of men."
Delicious Recipe Follow-up
Pete's and my delicious dinner wildly exceeded our expectations. It was definitely as nice as going out for dinner, and the whole affair only cost $30 (plus a bottle of wine). Plus we had the fun of attempting to cook in my tiny kitchen and accidentally dusting ourselves over with charcoal powder (Ok, maybe the charcoal powder part wasn't as fun). Details on the dinner after the jump, but be prepared for your mouth to water.
Selda. haha.
I love all of you (well, the ones I know). But the blog's a little serious. I like serious mixed with in with a healthy dose of a good time. You know, like all the popular blogs:perezhilton, that gay guy who was a guest host on the view, pink is the new blog. you know, like that. So, I'm taking that up as my job.
Whatever happened to free speech zones?
To keep me from losing my mind at work (the cold, dark place that lacks a human element), Greg's started to give me research projects.
Today we have the following question: Whatever happened to Free Speech Zones? Note: I know this violates everything about Selda's demand for more fun posts, so my next one will be silly. I promise.
Likewise, in May of last year, the Homeland Security Department waded butt-deep into the murky waters of political suppression, issuing a terrorist advisory to local law enforcement agencies. It urged all police officials to keep a hawk-eyed watch on any homelanders who [Warning: Do not read the rest of this sentence if it will shock you to learn that there are people like this in your country!] have "expressed dislike of attitudes and decisions of the US government."
MEMO TO TOM RIDGE, SECRETARY OF HSD: Sir, that's everyone. All 280 million of us, minus George Bush, you and the handful of others actually making the decisions. You've just branded every red-blooded American a terrorist. Maybe you should stick to playing with your color codes.
Interestingly enough, free speech zones swing both ways. In 2004,
Protesters at the DNC were confined to a fenced-in area -- a wire enclosure topped by razor wire outside Boston's FleetCenter, where the Convention was held. They charged that their First Amendment rights were violated by this confinement.
Apparently, spinoffs of FSZs continue across the country. Atlanta and St. Petersburg both struggled over what to do with homophobs during city-sanctioned gay pride parades. Atlanta decided against creating zones and allowed unrestricted protests by anti-gay groups. Somewhat bizarrely, the St. Petersburg mayor and police chief created a little area for gay folk, a little area for the anti-gays, and then arrested people who violated their respective zones.
On the side of progress, the Minneapolis city council is drafting operating procedures to follow to protect free speech during the 2008 RNC.
On the side of insanity, check this out: excerpts from the manual given to advance teams at Bush's speaking engagements. Look at all the clever ways they have of weeding out protesters and protecting the president. It really is a good read.
So, here's my question to my law school friends: WTF? Why is any of this in any way legal? How are cages out of sight of the event a reasonable restriction of free speech? How can you deny protesters the right to speak to the media?
Also, the ACLU seems to file law suits here and there against various organizations for these free speech zones - they just filed a new one last month. Why can't there be a sweeping decision against the zones? What about the law am I missing?
Love
me
"CRS lacks a human element"
This is in today's Roll Call. You guys have heard me talk about this guy for a really long time - he finally went public. Check out the story after the jump.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Labels
This is an update/adaptation to the earlier post about post-by-author tabs. Smed and I had a very lengthy conversation today about the blog.
Delicious Recipe
I thought you all might to know a delicious vegetarian recipe that you can prepare for yourself and your loved ones. Peter and I are going to make this tonight on the grill of my fabulous patio.
- 4 portobello mushroom caps
- Italian dressing
- 1 jar of marinara sauce
- 1 jar roasted red bell peppers
- Mozzarella cheese (although I am going to try to find something with a bit more bite)
- Marinate mushrooms with the Italian dressing in a ziplock bag for 15 minutes.
- As the mushrooms are marinating, multi-task a little bit, people. Light the grill and heat up the marina sauce on the stove. Also turn on your oven because you'll have to use the broiler as well. I know, there are a lot of heating aparati involved in this recipe.
- Grill mushrooms for 10 minutes on each side.
- Spread a layer of marina sauce on the bottom of a shallow baking pan. Put the mushrooms in the marinara sauce, and then cover them with some roasted red peppers and a couple of slices of cheese. (I am also going to grill some onion pieces while I grill my mushrooms, so I will put onions on as well).
- Broil until cheese is melty and delicious.
Pete and I will let y'all know how it turns out. BON APPETIT.
Salon interview with Elizabeth Edwards
Even though I am a foreign policy junkie, I am suffering from a case of Iraq burnout, and I think that the Edwards campaign just might be the cure I need.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Yippee!!!
Things don't look weird anymore. I think everything's working again, including read more. Tell me of problems.
I'm still working on the display by author; if you have time, it would still be wildly helpful if you could go add your name as a label to all of your previous posts. I probably won't do it for you.
Have a great Sunday! Happy Birthday, Shween!
Kel
Friday, July 13, 2007
Republican sex scandal updates
I wrote a few days ago about poor Rep. Vitter's name appearing on the DC Madam's list. Well, this is from our good friend Jakob, who will hopefully start writing on the blog very soon:
I know things look weird...
Pretty soon, perhaps on Monday, I'm going to create a draft blog so that I can fuck around without everyone seeing it. Until then, Ms. Smed requested a way to see posts-by-author -- I'm almost there, but still have a few things to do. I'm still kinda sick, though, so I'm going to go watch a movie and probably leave the blog being ugly until I go back to work. Sorry!
However, the new changes are going to be neat. And I need everyone to go back and add your screen name as a label to your previous posts, please.
Oh, and read more is broken. I think it's the java script host. If it's not fixed Monday, I'll fiddle around some more.
Thanks!
Love
me
This is Amazing!
Simply amazing. The moral of the story is that everyone needs love. And a little booze.
Update: Fixed Broken Link
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Misc updates
I am very sick, and just drank a lot of Nyquil.
Smed's posts are better than mine.
Everyone should get twitter and make Joey happy. Although we got delicious and he never did.
Real things after the jump.
Looks like someone fucked up the blog...
And that person is me. Please Kellie, delete one of the twice-posted entries found beneath this one. I am so ashamed; it's a blogging snafu. Feel free to delete this post too, I guess. Although it does include the word "snafu."
Holy Asap!
Everyone is all atwitter (no, Joey I have not gotten a twitter account) about these new iphones. Sure they are cool, but I have a few ideas (okay, 2 ideas) about how 'regular' cell phones could be improved.
Twitter Updates
So I added a Twitter box for myself. I don't know if we can have a group box or not, might be worth looking into if there's sustained interest. You can click on my badge to see my profile on twitter or search for me there or just click here. You can add me as a friend, which means you'll get my updates through the Web or follow me, which means you'd get them through SMS or IM. Either way, they're showing up in the side bar now. I have my badge set up for just one update at a time. It's sort of a constant status message like IMs. Make sense? Let me know if it doesn't. I'm both a friend with and following Kellie. Come join the fun.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Save the Internet: 6 Days Left (5 if you read this in the morning)
So most of my posts are about random tech stuff, but here's a little politics to fit in. "Net neutrality" means that telecommunications companies share traffic equally across the network. That's the way things work now, and it's legally enforced that way. The alternative, that the Bush administration and most telcos are fairly behind, is to deregulate and allow individual companies to offer whatever content they want and charge more for full access.
Twitterific
I was just wondering if anyone else here uses Twitter. Since we're doing this whole stay connected through technology thing, I thought I'd bring everyone up to speed. Twitter is a micro-blogging service that lets you post "tweets" of less than 140 characters from the Web, IM, your phone, or desktop clients. You can also use it to receive SMS tweets to your phone from many bloggers and news sources, including the New York Times. It's huge among the hip, elite techsters--everyone started using it at SXSW this last year--but it doesn't seem like anyone I'm actually friends with is using it. Are y'all coastal types seeing this at all? Regardless, I say good for us for blogging together, but we might be behind the times. If nothing else, I suggest we post a badge to add twittering to the blog.
Goings on
Greetings from House of Nerds, where things never stop changing! (Because I'm stuck in Maryland, and I have nothing better to do besides update the blog). Please read and provide feedback about the new additions.
Update: I ran out of time, because Congress is overzealous in their research today, I am going to update the links I reference here, explain to Joey how to use "read more" and how not to, and ask for your opinions about various optional updates. Stay tuned!
Until then, please observe today's fun tricks, after the jump.
<span id="fullpost">down by now, so I'm going to add three more tags to your html/css vocabulary:
<span class="pullquote"> whatever you want to pull goes here</span>
<span class="dropcaps">the letter you want to make large goes here</span>
<blockquote>the text you want to highlight goes here</blockquote>(you guys already know how to use this one, I think, so I'm not going to model it).
If you want the pullquote to look like this, then use "pullquote"
So. How do these work? Let's say you want to use the fancy "dropcaps" function, like in a magazine. You simply put the first letter of the word between
<span class="dropcaps"></span>and it makes it pretty. So, for example, if I
If you think this pullquote is prettier, then just use "pullquote2".
Fun, right???
were to take a section from Smed's earlier post, I would go like this:
<span class="dropcaps">H</span>ereand it would look like this:
Here is your legal lesson for the day. Big businesses get mortgages from the bank so they can buy really expensive property. But the bank doesn't want to be left with an mortgage IOU in exchange for loaning the companies
some money. So it divides the mortgage up into hundreds of pieces and sells them to the highest bidders. Each bidder tells the bank how much interest they want to make when the bank repays them.
Does that make sense? kinda cool, huh?
Lots of Liquor
So I just paid my credit card bill and realized we never collected money for the Austin reunion party. I expect people to be handing me drinks left and right the next time we all meet up. I'm looking forward to it. You can also mail pre-mixed drinks (in tightly sealed containers, of course) to my Austin address. We will synchronize our watches and toast each other across the country. Alternatively, you can look into whether Barfly's has gift certificates. Actually, that might be ideal. And now you all know what you'll be getting for Christmas this year, too.
The blog, it is a changin'
Because I never stop working for you, I am making a half-dozen or so changes today, so don't be surprised if things appear/disappear randomly. If you find something that doesn't work, let me know, though. I'll post about all the fun new things when I'm done!
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malesuada. Vestibulum eleifend ante a quam. Nullam venenatis, ipsum sed congue luctus, risus nisi sodales urna, sed dapibus leo magna eget neque. Duis placerat. Donec suscipit, sem ac gravida luctus, diam odio luctus metus, vitae pharetra mauris metus vitae pede. Nam tristique erat semper felis. Nulla facilisi. Fusce varius mauris pulvinar tellus.Suspendisse ornare. Donec suscipit odio vel lacus. Aenean adipiscing eros sit amet pede.
Love
me
I knew if we were patient, the time would come.
David Vitter (R-LA) is on the DC Madam's list. And, just like Newt, DeLay, and the rest of 'em, it's cool that he cheated on his wife because now he found Jesus.
Poor Louisiana. Katrina, stupid Jefferson and the money in the freezer, and now a Senator who likes the ladies.
Can Vitter stay the course, or will he resign? Stay tuned! I knew it would be a fun week in politics.
To all the Austin Transvestites...
I'm fine. Thanks for your concern.
I meant to thank you earlier. I was vaguely distracted at the time.
Monday, July 9, 2007
This Is What Happens When Congress Flips
So it's not as good as I would have hoped from the title, but it is a video of a German guy getting slapped in the face with a fish for losing a bet about the US mid-term elections. Make of that what you will.
Please ban O'Reilly
When Papa Bear isn't reporting on ticking British time bombs, he's breaking the story of roving bands of pink pistol packing lesbians.
Be careful, my loves, - 150 crews in Maryland and DC alone!
Of course, as Dave from Orcinus reports, O'Reilly's tellin' lies. Again.
Back in Maryland
Apparently, everyone who went to texas posted as soon as they got back. Perhaps to feel better about returning to Maryland, and leaving the greatest state in the union. So, here's mine.
Donations to DCRCC - last chance
Hey, everyone -
This Thursday, July 12, I graduate as a DC Rape Crisis Center volunteer! It's been an intense six weeks. I'm excited that training's almost over, and I get to begin the actual volunteer work! We're still looking for sponsors - if you're interested, there's more information after the jump.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
Amazing
Check this out - most Americans want impeachment hearings against Cheney and Bush.
Looks like another interesting week in politics! Hopefully other pollsters will replicate the findings.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Guy who thinks "rape" is a buzzword running for Senate
But it's my blog, so do what you want.
I kid, I kid. It's our blog.
Check out who's running for Tim Johnson's Senate seat in South Dakota: the guy who thinks "rape" and "incest" are buzzwords!
Good times.
Happy weekend!!
I hate this woman
I actually couldn't finish reading these transcripts, which are a remarkable testiment to Ann Coulter's relationship with Chris Matthews (of Hardball) because they made me literally, physically, ill.
Thought you might enjoy them.
Browser problems
Last post, and I'm probably out for the day.
Any of you having problems with the blog in the past 24 hours?For example, earlier today I couldn't load the blog at all, and now I can only see 1/2 of my post about the World Bank.
If you are, just shoot me an email and let me know what happened, when it happened, and which browser you were using.
nuraido@gmail.com
Thanks!
Kel
Lisa 2008
Vote for Lisa in 2008 - she's even got Al Gore's endorsement! It's for a good cause, and who wouldn't want Lisa to be pres?
Go to the webpage, vote, and get 5 more people to do the same. It's Friday, you know you're not working anyway!
Anti-globalization, social injustice, and why none of my friends should ever work for the World Bank, IMF, WTO, etc...
Since I started back here on the Hill, I've been hyper-focused on Congress and the "inside the Beltway" nonsense. Earlier today, I was talking to the great Rhondini about the World Bank, and it got my Irish up. My strictly-regulated break time expired without us reaching a resolution, so I promised her a post about the nascent evils of the IMF and World Bank. Here we are.
The bank's own former chief economist, Nobel Prize-winner Joseph Stiglitz, says this approach "has condemned people to death... They don't care if people live or die."
There are a million individual examples of the World Bank's evil practices. Here are a couple:
Haitian rice farmers
Mozambique's cashew nut processing industry
The oil for arms deal in Chad
Latin American water rights
Human rights in Indonesia
The matter gets worse. On top of structural policies that create poverty and destroy local industry, The World Bank also steals money from impoverished countries. I'm actually going to read the Social Watch Report from 2006 on the metro ride home tonight, but here's the punch line: the World Bank takes more money from developing countries than it provides. Can you explain how stealing money from poor countries eradicates poverty? I'm curious. New math, I suppose.
The result is that poor countries get poorer. Peter Goodman, writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, notes that the living conditions of folks in the poorest countries have worsened over the past decade "despite" World Bank efforts:
But the evaluation group study found that growth has rarely been sustained, exposing the most vulnerable people -- the rural poor -- to volatile shifts in their economic fortunes. Only two in five of the countries that borrowed from the World Bank saw per capita incomes rise continuously from 2000 to 2005, the study reported, and only one in five saw increases for the full decade from 1995 to 2005.
The study emphasized that economic growth is, by itself, no fix: How the gains are distributed is just as important. In China, Romania, Sri Lanka and many Latin American countries, swiftly expanding economies have improved incomes for many, but the benefits have been limited by a simultaneous increase in economic inequality, putting the spoils into the hands of the rich and not enough into poor households, the study concludes.
The good news is that people have noticed, and environmental, fair trade, social justice, and women's rights organizations have organized into an anti-globalization movement (Most notably, of course, in Seattle in 1999). There are some indications, particularly in Latin America, that the popular anti-globalization sentiment are translating into electoral politics. Laura Carlson argues that protests and the recent elections of socialist leaders in Latin America are an important sign of the rising populist voice. A predominant theme of the Latin American anti-globalization movement is their overwhelming desire to disentangle from the IMF/WB.
Although Venezuela's Hugo Chavez (despite his utter weirdness) and Bolivia's (much more likable) Evo Morales continue to fight the good fight, they are among the few international leaders who are willing to stand up to the IMF and World Bank. So here we are. Wolfie's out, Zoellick's in charge, and it's time to reject the World Bank and usher in a golden era of populism.
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